For a long time people have been using seafood for food, they are tasty and nutritious. Squids are one of the most affordable and healthy seafood. Squids are rich in vitamins, microelements, they contain a lot of iodine, phosphorus and magnesium. They are also rich in valuable protein, which is easily absorbed and stimulates the production of gastric juice. To prepare dishes with squid, you need to know how to properly clean them from the film. It is also important to cook them properly to keep the meat tender and juicy.

Before cooking, the squid should be peeled from the film. To do this, pour boiling water over the carcasses for a few seconds, the thin skin should come off by itself. But there may be a problem - after boiling water, the squids are already half cooked, and they are easy to digest. In this case, use a different method to remove the film from the squid. Take out the frozen product from the refrigerator and defrost it in the air. Press the defrosted carcass with your hand and remove the skin, gently prying its edge with your fingernail. Usually the skin from the squid comes off completely, but if it was thawed and frozen again, then it may not come off. You also need to remove the skin from the squid wings and remove the chitinous plates from the inside before cooking. Depending on the food you plan to cook, there are several easy ways to cook frozen squid. For example, to prepare a salad with squid, it is enough to pour boiling water over the carcass and hold it for 5 minutes. Then remove the skin from it, cut into rings and sprinkle with lemon juice. For some dishes, the squid should be boiled for a little longer using spices. To cook squid correctly, you will need:

• Water - 1 l;
• Black peppercorns;
• Bay leaf - 2 pcs;
• Salt;
• Squid carcasses - 2 pcs.

Season with salt, pepper and bay leaf, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Dip the squids in boiling water, bring to a boil again and remove with a slotted spoon. Squid meat tends to digest quickly and become rubbery. In order to cook soft and tender meat, you can use the following method - boil water with spices, lower the squid carcass, count to 10 and remove. We do the same with the next carcass. You can also boil water with salt and spices, put squid in the water and remove the pan from heat. Gradually, the squid carcass will become soft, rich in spices and will not be digested. Squid protein has the ability to curdle quickly, so the less time you cook the carcass, the juicier it will turn out. If you cook the squid for more than 2 minutes, then it will become hard and rubbery, after half an hour of cooking, it will be soft again, but it will decrease in size by half. Therefore, for the preparation of delicious squid dishes, it is better not to cook, than to digest.

A large number of dishes are prepared with squid, in addition to the famous salad, squid is put in sandwiches, in pizza, zrazy is made, stuffed with vegetables, and snacks are prepared. Properly peeled and cooked, squid is a delicious and delicate delicacy for true gourmets.

Everyone who has tasted squid at least once will certainly want to try this delicacy again. The main feature of this seafood is its delicate taste, which will surely please not only adults, but also children. However, when trying to cook squid at home, many are faced with failure - their meat becomes tough, tasteless, or acquires an unpleasant smell that can ruin all the pleasure of eating. At the same time, a salad needs perfect ingredients, because only then can you enjoy it to the fullest. Therefore, each housewife should know how to cook squid correctly, as well as a few more secrets of their preparation.

Remember, proper squid preparation starts with store selection. To do this, you should head to a good supermarket or specialist retailer.

It is best not to buy seafood in small shops, as you cannot be sure of their quality and proper storage conditions.

If you live far enough from the ocean, you should only be interested in frozen squid, as this product does not withstand long-term refrigeration. To prepare a salad, you will need ready-made carcasses, but for serving, you can choose a whole squid with tentacles.

Look carefully at the frozen foods offered by the store - they should have a uniform, white or slightly purple color. Signs of damage will be:

• gray or bluish tint;
• brown, red, and bluish spots;
• deep cracks in carcasses in places of their damage.

It is better not to buy peeled squid carcasses, since only on the skin can you see the main signs of a poor-quality product. Do not be afraid of the laborious work - in fact, the skin is easy to clean and does not cause any hassle.

If the store only stocks peeled squid, try to inspect them closely for small reddish, black, or brown dots that indicate spoilage. After bringing it home, put the food in the freezer and take it out just before cooking. Frequent freezing and thawing harms squid and makes them unsuitable for human consumption. When defrosting, pay attention to the density of the carcasses - they should be quite elastic and a little harsh, and also restore their shape after pressing. If the squid is blurry and looks like jelly, you cannot add it to a salad or use it to prepare another dish.

Preparation

Frozen foods should be placed in a plastic or metal tray and allowed to thaw on their own - they should not be heated, since the squid can become too soft and shapeless. Regardless of whether you are going to prepare a salad or other dish, the carcasses need to be peeled, since the skin is inedible and too tough.

It is very easy to do this - you need to boil water and dip the squid in it using a special kitchen clamp or a long fork with two teeth. The skin will instantly curl up, and you just have to remove it, and also cut off the tentacles, remove the chitinous plates inside and outside, on the wings. For a gourmet salad, peeled carcasses can also be scraped lightly, as small, hard scales may remain on them.

Now you need to learn how to cook squid correctly in order to make a salad or other dish based on them truly delicious. Remember that frozen carcasses cannot be immersed in boiling water, since they will instantly lose their shape and also become unsuitable for eating. Also, you should not cook squid for a long time, since from prolonged temperature exposure they become very hard and unpleasant to the taste. ... To prepare a salad, it will be enough to dip the squid in boiling water for exactly two minutes.

There are several main options for cooking such a delicious dish:

1. Dip in boiling water with salt and spices for about 2 minutes and immediately remove with a slotted spoon, observing the safety rules.
2. Put several carcasses in boiling water with salt and spices and immediately remove from the heat, after about 10 minutes they will acquire the required degree of readiness.
3. If there are enough squid, you need to put all the peeled carcasses in a saucepan and put on fire. When the water boils, add the desired spices and remove the pan from the heat. It will take 5 minutes to cook the meat, after which the carcasses will need to be carefully removed.

If you have cooked squid for too long, they will not be suitable for preparing a salad due to the high toughness of the meat. However, there is a little trick that allows you to restore the original state of the product. You need to cook it over low heat for an hour, until the meat softens again and becomes palatable. But it should be borne in mind that you put much less food in the salad, and they will lose all their useful properties, since prolonged cooking destroys many organic compounds and leaches out minerals.

What to cook?

First of all, squid is cooked for salad, which has a very delicate taste, high nutritional value and excellent beneficial properties. Remember that such a dish is not prepared from a dozen ingredients and is not added 2-3 times more than other products. The taste of squid is very specific, and therefore the salad should consist of at least a third or even half of them.

After preparing frozen food, cut the carcasses into rings or chop them into coarse strips, and then mix with other foods, adding a little mayonnaise or vegetable oil. Squids are combined with cucumbers, fresh lettuce, rice, nuts, boiled eggs, as well as basil and other fresh spices.

Peeled and boiled carcasses can also be stuffed - for this, use a vegetable salad or a mixture based on poultry meat. You should not combine squid with other seafood or rather heavy meats such as beef and pork. If desired, the stuffed carcass can be baked in the oven so that it acquires a pleasant golden hue and piquant taste. You can also cook squid in batter by baking them in the oven or frying them in a deep fat fryer. Before serving, they can be sprinkled with lemon juice, and along with the squid, serve a light vegetable salad and white wine.

If you didn't cook the squid for salad, you can make a traditional Japanese pie. It is made on the basis of yeast dough and coated with mushroom sauce, which emphasizes the taste of seafood. It should be baked for about 20–25 minutes at medium temperature, because with prolonged heat treatment, the main ingredient will become excessively hard and tasteless. Squids are also added to many dishes, including soups, yeast pies, and are used as a filling for stuffed fish and meat. In Japan, pieces of boiled octopus and squid boiled in cuttlefish ink are considered a special delicacy, but if this dish is prepared incorrectly, it will be dangerous to health.

How to cook squid properly

How to properly boil squid for salad? First of all, throw out all those stupid books that teach you how to cook squid for 3-5 minutes or more. Such advisers should be brought to justice for false information or intentional sabotage. I am sure that most of the "non-lovers" of squid have tried them prepared in these savage ways.

Take squid, peeled and thawed.

Boil water in a separate saucepan. Add salt, bay leaf, peppercorns to the water. Dip the squid into boiling water one at a time. Drop one first. Count to ten quickly and remove the squid with a slotted spoon. Wait for the water to boil again and lower the next squid.

Cooked squid:

Some of my friends do not cook squid for salad at all. They just pour the already peeled squid with boiling water again, then drain the water and sprinkle the half-raw carcasses with vinegar.

For those who have doubts, I have conducted a small experiment. I took two identical squid and cooked them differently.

This is a squid cooked in my way:	And this is a squid that has been simmering for exactly three minutes:

Is there a difference? Now imagine what would happen if you boil it longer? A small and wrinkled piece of rubber.

There is one more feature. Squid protein has such a structure that if you cook it for more than two minutes, it hardens. If more than 30 minutes, it softens again. But with prolonged cooking, the mass decreases by more than half. Whereas the squids cooked in my way lose very little in weight.

Squid salad with cheese and nuts

Today we are preparing a very simple squid salad with cheese. A few toasted walnuts and sesame seeds will add a festive touch to it.

I read that squid cannot be digested. Different sources indicated different cooking times - from 3 to 10 minutes (!!!).

I believed the printed word, at first I cooked for 10 minutes - rubber squids, cooked the next batch for 5 minutes - the same thing, cooked for three minutes - not a fountain ...

So I left this venture. And, being on a visit, I never treated myself to dishes with squid. Many years have passed since then, and once, with a friend, I tried the Neptune salad, not suspecting that it contains squid. I really liked the salad, and the look and taste of the squid just surprised. A friend told how she prepares and boils squid.

Everything turned out to be not simple, but very simple. Now I remember with a smile my "squid" sufferings. Perhaps my experience will be useful to someone else.

Squids on sale are both peeled (white and shiny) and unpeeled, not very appetizing and brown in color. The difference in price between them is insignificant and amounts to approximately $ 0.2-0.4.

• The first secret delicious squid is simple - the cooking time is calculated not in minutes, but in seconds. And these seconds should be no more than 20-30. A friend quickly counts to thirty and removes the pot of squid from the heat.
• Second secret- after cooling the squid in cold water, she cuts them into thin strips and sends them to a marinade of soy sauce, lemon juice, black pepper, vegetable oil and a chive (not chopped) crushed with a knife (not chopped) for an hour.

Properly cooked squid is very tender and tasty.

After that, the squid can be used in any salad. I must say that after the marinade, the squids are very tasty on their own.

But today, we will still make a squid salad with cheese.

We will need:

There were nuts and sesame seeds in the muffin tins, but by the time they were photographed, they went to fry in a pan.

• Squids 4-5 pcs (small size)
• Green onions - 1 small bunch
• Hard cheese - 150 g
• Mayonnaise - 2-3 tbsp. spoons
• Nuts - 1 tbsp spoon
• Sesame seeds - 1-2 tsp

Marinade for squid:

• Soy sauce - 1 tablespoon
• Lemon - ½ pc. (or 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar)
• Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Garlic -1 clove
• Ground black pepper - to taste

Squid salad with cheese is very easy to prepare. First, boil the squid according to the method described above, cut them into strips and marinate for 1 hour. Then mix with grated cheese, finely chopped onions, nuts and mayonnaise.

Sprinkle the prepared salad with toasted sesame seeds.

Bon appetit, I hope you enjoyed this simple and delicious salad.

If you have squid with heads and tentacles, then first you need to get rid of all inedible parts.

Toshiyuki IMAI / Flickr.com

Take the squid carcass in one hand, with the other grab the head near the eyes. Pull gently - along with the head and tentacles, you will remove some of the viscera. The rest can be removed when you skin.

The tentacles are usually discarded with the head, but they can be used. To do this, you need to cut them off near the eyes. Be sure to remove the squid's mouth at the same time - it is hard, hiding among the tentacles.

But usually everyone does not have to bother with this. In stores, as a rule, they sell frozen squid in a semi-cut form: without heads and tentacles.

Carcasses (biologists would say - a mantle) are covered with a red and white film, which is troublesome and long to clean with a knife.

To quickly clean the squid, you need to douse them with boiling water, hold them in hot water for about a minute and rinse them under running water. Some housewives treat carcasses as with pasta: pour boiling water in a colander and immediately turn on cold water.

Under the influence of high temperature, the skin will come off the carcass easily and quickly. You only have to remove its remnants when rinsing. Then the squid can be cut lengthwise to remove the chitinous plate and entrails.

But you can not violate the cylindrical shape of the mantle: the insides and chitinous plate are easily removed with your fingers. Whole squid can be stuffed or cut into rings.

Method 1. "Cold start"

Place the peeled squid in a saucepan with cold water. Place the utensils on the stove and turn on medium heat. When the water warms up, add a little salt, and when it boils, immediately turn it off and catch the carcasses.

Like many other seafood, squid does not tolerate heat treatment well. If the clam is cooked for a long time, the meat will be tough, like a rubber sole.

The main secret of cooking squid is not to overcook it.

It is important not to miss the boiling point. You literally need to stay close to the pot.

Method 2. Boiling in hot water

Bring lightly salted water to a boil. When the first bubbles appear, start the squid. Boiling will stop for a while, and as soon as it resumes, you need to turn it off immediately.

Here, too, it is very important not to overexpose the meat in boiling water.

Method 3. Pouring boiling water

Many consider this method to be the most correct and argue that squids cooked in this way are the most tender and delicious.

You need to fill it three times. The first is the time when you pour boiling water over the squid to get rid of the skin.

The second time, you need to leave the peeled shellfish in boiling water for one minute. After that, rinse the carcasses with water and boil the kettle again. After the third pouring (holding time is also 60 seconds) and rinsing, the squid are ready to eat. You can add salt to the bowl each time you pour.

Some housewives cut or stuff them right away. Others remove the transparent film from the carcasses.

Method 4. Combined

The highlight of this method is that the squid is cooked right away. The skinning stage is combined with the boiling process.

Salt boiling water: about 1 tablespoon to 3 liters of water. Place thawed squid in it. You will see how the mantles of the mollusks will become voluminous and the red and white film will come off them.

Wait until the interrupted boiling resumes, and note 1.5-2.5 minutes. Simmer the squid with a vigorous boil, uncovered. After the specified time has elapsed, the pan must be removed from the heat and covered with a lid.

Let the squid cool for 10-15 minutes. After that, rinse them under running water, remove the remnants of the skin, entrails and chord plate.

Alternatively, you can immediately put the carcasses in a bowl of cold water, thereby stopping the heat treatment.

Boiled squid can be used in salads, fried in batter rings, stuffed with various fillings.

Kevin / Flickr.com

The described methods of cooking squid are very simple and take a minimum of time. Try all four to figure out which calamari is most tender for your taste.

Do you know other secrets of cooking squid? Share in the comments.

Boiled squid meat is often used by housewives for preparing sea salad or fried with various types of side dishes. Well, if you know how much to cook squid and how to do it according to all the rules, the finished product can be used as an independent delicacy.

Before serving, it will be enough to salt it, cut into rings and sprinkle with lemon juice. First, you need to spend a little time choosing a quality product, if necessary, clean the blanks. Then you can start cooking them by choosing one of the many methods.

How to choose quality squid?

Regardless of whether squid is purchased for a salad or a more complex dish, the selection process must be taken seriously. You should at least remember the following points:

1. The component is best purchased unpeeled, with a skin. It is best to use whole chilled or frozen carcasses.
2. You need to make sure that the sea animal meat has been frozen only once. This is indicated by its integrity and aesthetic appearance. If carcasses are broken or stuck together, this indicates re-freezing. Even if you boil such products according to all the rules, they will taste bitter and fall apart during processing.
3. Squid meat can only be white, but any color of the skin is acceptable. If the color of the pulp has changed as a result of heat treatment, it is better to get rid of it.

It is better to refuse to purchase squid meat molded in the form of cubes. Such blanks are of poor quality. After boiling, they taste very bitter and acquire an unpleasant loose texture.

How to properly boil squid for salad?

To figure out how to cook squid properly, you need to pay special attention to two things. The first is the processing time of the component, which will allow the product to be brought to an edible state, but at the same time will not cause protein folding and the transformation of delicate pulp into rubber. The second is the correct use of additional components and a special approach to organizing the process. The delicacy that will be used as a component of the salad must be peeled and processed as follows:

• For 1 kg of fresh component, we take 2 liters of water and 2 tablespoons of salt. In addition, you should take 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a few peas of black pepper and a couple of laurel leaves. These ingredients are taken so that the squid at the exit is not tasteless and bland.

Tip: If you digest the squid, they will shrink in size and take on a rubbery consistency. In order to somehow improve the situation, you need to continue boiling the components. Processing for 20 minutes total time will allow the meat to return to tenderness. True, the size will not be restored.

• We put all additional components in water, which we bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and spread fresh squid whole or chopped into large pieces.
• The workpieces are boiled for no more than 1.5 minutes, and you do not need to wait for them to boil again. If the carcasses are small, 1 minute is enough.
• Now the food must be removed from the water, put in a colander and cooled to room temperature. Some housewives simply remove the pan from the heat, but this is not enough. The workpieces will continue to cook, making them rubbery.

When boiling squid, do not rely on your intuition. It is necessary to clearly mark the time, or even better - set an alarm or start a timer. Just a few seconds of delay can damage the product.

Features of boiling frozen squid

In modern stores, squid is most often sold frozen. To get an ideal component for a salad or main dish from such a product, you need to do the following:

• It will take quite a long time to properly defrost the sea reptile. At least 4-5 hours before cooking, the semi-finished product should be put in the refrigerator, away from the freezer. It is strictly forbidden to try to speed up the process of bringing the product to the desired state by using a microwave oven, hair dryer, container with water.
• There is no need to wait until the carcasses are completely thawed. If they are still thick, it will be easier to clean them. Cleaning is carried out in the direction from the tentacles to the head of the individual. To do this, it is enough to pick up the skin and pull. After that, films, chitinous plates, and viscera are removed.
• Cut the resulting mass into rings, small pieces or strips. During operation, the meat should completely defrost. We boil it in the same way as a fresh product.
• If, during the cooking process, dense lumps appear on the surface of the meat, this indicates poor cleaning. The situation can be corrected only by cutting off problem areas, so the preliminary stage must be carried out carefully.

If boiled squids are not planned to be used immediately, then they can be kept in the same broth in which they were boiled. True, first, both the workpieces and the liquid must be cooled to room temperature.

How should you cook squid rings?

If there were no whole carcasses on sale and you had to purchase rings that were subjected to industrial cutting and freezing, you need to use a special approach. It is slightly different in how to cook frozen squid if they are whole.

• Boil water with spices or broth in a saucepan. Immerse the frozen rings in the liquid. If you defrost them beforehand, the texture of the product will turn out to be very loose and unappetizing.

Tip: If squids have been stored for some time with fish or other strong-smelling foods, due to which they acquired an unpleasant odor, do not throw away the delicacy. It is enough to boil it in water with the addition of fresh herbs or sprinkle the ready-made component with lemon juice.

• Immediately after this, the pan must be removed from the heat, without waiting for the water to boil. Cover the container with a lid and keep it at room temperature for 10 minutes.

After a specified time, squids intended for salad or other dishes can be taken out with a slotted spoon and used for their intended purpose.

Unusual options for boiling squid

Squids can be cooked not only in the traditional way, using a pot of water for this. There are many of the same simple approaches that allow you to get an equally tasty and slightly unusual product.

• In the microwave in broth. Pour water with spices or ready-made broth into a bowl suitable for use in a microwave oven. Bring the liquid to a boil in 1-2 minutes. We spread pieces or whole carcasses of fresh (thawed) squids, send them for processing. It is enough to hold the workpieces for 1.5 minutes at maximum power, and they will be ready.
• In the microwave in its own juice. Put thawed or fresh pieces of squid in a bowl, pour a teaspoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Stir the mass and send it to the oven. We cook for no more than a minute at maximum power. We insist the product for another 5 minutes in the turned off microwave.
• In a slow cooker. We put pieces of squid in the bowl of the device, fill with water. Add salt, pepper, herbs, spices to taste and close the lid. We set the "Cooking" mode, set the timer to 3 minutes. After turning off the device, wait another 5 minutes before opening the lid. If the squid is initially filled with boiling water, open the lid immediately after the end of processing.
• In a double boiler. We spread pieces of carcass or rings in a steamer tray, salt and pepper. If desired, you can put herbs or spices directly into the tray. We start the device for 10 minutes, if it is not very powerful or it takes a lot of time to form steam, set the timer for 12 minutes. This method is the most gentle, in this case it is almost impossible to digest the workpieces.

Contrary to popular belief, not only the carcass is edible in squid. In general, only the head, cartilaginous part (gladius) and intestines are subject to removal. Fins can be eaten, they are denser and fleshy than the carcass itself. The tentacles that throw away almost everything are the source of the most tender meat. They only need to be thoroughly cleaned and can be used in the same way as the rest of the parts. The main thing is not to forget to remove the suction cups.